WE WERE OUT OF THE METIS ACCORD IN 1992 AND WE STILL ARE OUT OF IT IN 2017

The site title The"Other" Métis was chosen with deliberate irony. When prairie Métis were struggling in the 1970's to achieve national recognition of themselves as Aboriginal people, the Manitoba Metis Federation published a series of three books called "The Other Natives -- The Métis." Having achieved a significant degree of recognition by joining with other Métis all across Canada, some of the leadership of some of those same prairie organizations have since attempted to exclude those other Metis in the same way many status Indian groups excluded unregistered Indians in the late 1960's and early 1970's.We hope The Other Métis will do as well for the excluded Métis as The Other Natives did for prairie Métis.

I was reminded recently that the phrase The "Other" Métis" also played a significant role in the 1992 Charlottetown Agreement process. The Metis National Council (MNC) delegation was proposing a Metis Nation Accord which included a restrictive definition of Métis. The Native Council of Canada delegation opposed the Accord unless a non-derogation clause was included. The MNC produced a clause which prevented the Accord from affecting the rights of other Aboriginal people.The NCC insisted that the phrase be extended to say "including other Métis." The MNC delegate adamantly refused, and the Accord subsequently did not achieve the government votes (the Federal Government and seven Provincial governments) necessary to become part of the Charlottetown Agreement.